1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electroluminescent display device and a camera which incorporates an electroluminescent display device used as a monitoring device, and more specifically relates to a digital camera which incorporates an enlarged monitoring device for displaying object images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
LCDs (liquid crystal displays) are used as monitoring devices (LCD monitors) in digital cameras which are available on the market at the present time. Since the monitoring device is usually provided on the back of the camera though various operating switches that the user manually operates while looking through the monitoring device are also provided on the back of the camera, there is no other choice but to positioned the monitoring device on an area on the back of the camera which does not interfere with such various operating switches. Accordingly, there is a limit to how much the size of the monitoring device can be enlarged without increasing the size of the camera. Specifically in recent years, it has become more and more difficult to enlarge the display screen size of the monitoring device because miniaturization of the camera has continued to advance. Therefore, it is difficult to frame and display the object image on the monitoring device and to visually check the focus state of the displayed object image. Additionally, although various setting screens (e.g., mode setting icons) are indicated on the monitoring device so that a desired mode such as a photographing mode can be selected from among various modes, letters and characters displayed on the monitoring device are so small that they cannot be easily read, and accordingly, the setting operation for the mode selection is difficult.
It is possible for a touch panel to be used to overcome this problem. As an input device used for cellular phones, an input device in which an EL (electroluminescent) display and a touch panel are laminated so that the EL display is overlaid onto the touch panel to allow the user to turn on operating switches of the underlying panel by pressing corresponding portions of the surface of the EL display by the user's finger or the like. If this type of input device is used, letters, characters and the like can be displayed largely on the EL display so that various setting operations such as mode setting operations (mode selecting operations) can be easily carried out.
Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2005-63413 discloses an input device which is limited to a technology for displaying indications which correspond to operating switches of a touch panel. Therefore, if this technique is applied to a digital camera, the operability of various operating switches can be improved, the area on the camera which is occupied by the various operating switches can be reduced by constructing these operating switches using an EL display, and the reduction in area occupied by the various operating switches is advantageous for enlarging a monitoring device thereof. However, since no object images can be displayed on the input device disclosed in the Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2005-63413, there is still no monitoring device that can be arranged on at least the area in which the input device is arranged. Moreover, it is difficult to enlarge the area of the monitoring device over the entire back surface of the camera to enlarge the monitoring device while achieving miniaturization of the camera. In addition, when the photographer (user) touches a surface of the touch panel by their finger to actuate a switch on the touch panel, the photographer cannot feel a tactile “click,” response from the touch panel, and accordingly, the photographer cannot perceive the activation of the switch through their finger, and sometimes the switch is not activated due to an inadequate contact, which may have an adverse effect on the photographer's confidence in achieving a desired photographing operation.